Current cellular systems such as Third Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) employ both ARQ and HARQ retransmission schemes. ARQ is implemented at a high level of a protocol stack (e.g., the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer) with a relatively long retransmission time out period, while HARQ is implemented at a low level of the protocol stack (e.g., the medium access control (MAC) and physical (PHY) layers). Additionally, ARQ and HARQ utilize separate and independent mechanisms to provide feedback from a receiver to a transmitter of a communications system so that the transmitter may learn a pass or fail status of received packets. Use of separate feedback for the ARQ and HARQ processes is based on a layered approach to data transmission in cellular systems.